- The Happening, Annie Ernaux (2000) - Atonement, Ian McEwan (2001) - Fingersmith , Sarah Waters (2002) - Never let me go, Kazuo Ishiguro (2005) - Half of a yellow sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2006) - The whole My struggle series, Karl Ove Knausgaard (2009 and onwards) - Bondrée, Andrée A Michaud (2014) - The Kingdom, Emmanuel Carrère (2014) - The Catholic School, Edoardo Albinatti (2016) - And their children after them, Nicolas Mathieu (2018) - Crimson, Niviaq Korneliussen (2019) - Homeland elegies, Ayad Akhtar (2020)
I'm about to order several from your list : Never Let Me Go; The Secrets Lives of Church Ladies; and Plague of Doves -- I'm anxious to read these. I'd like to recommend the Susan Howatch series about the C of E books. Excellent! Hyperion series by Dan Simmons; the Hugh Howey Silo series; and The Foundation classics by Asimov
I just discovered your channel not too long ago and I'm so glad I did! As a hardcore music nerd trying to get back into reading as an adult, it's overwhelming how many books are out there that I really want to read. Your down-to-earth personality and enthusiasm for literature really resonated with me so I will gladly check out these books you have suggested. Thank you so much for everything you do and keep up the good work!
I'm new to his channel as well as in like the last 3 weeks. I'm watching his back list plus new ones. I'm sorry I didn't find him during the covid lock down he's more productive than pimple popping videos
My favorite of the last 25 years is “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles, as evidenced by the fact that I’ve read it at least five times since it came out in 2016. It would be in the top 25 on my 75 years list (I’m 73) and my top 50 all time.
I love your enthusiasm in your videos, Greg! I read Gilead this year and it's easily one of my favorite books ever. So much heart and humanity in this work. Always looking forward to your videos!
This has been the first video of your channel I've watched - and I'm hooked! Fascinating list, a few of which I have read (Never Let Me Go and Small Things Like these I've read this year and could very much see them making their way on to my own list). There are a few there that I've wanted to read - The Poisoneood Bible is definitely one I'm going to pick up, especially having recently read Demon Copperhead, which I feel is very likely one of my all time favourite books. Gilead has been sat on my shelves for a few years now and for some reason i always seem to overlook it - having listened to your discussion of it, I have just taken it down and am about to start reading this evening! I particularly connected with your notion of how books change for us depending on who we are and where we are at in our lives. There's a very interesting podcast by The Women's Fiction Prize called Book Shelfie which interviews female authors and has them talk about five books that have left a mark on them, Barbara Kingsolver was interviewed last week and it was a fascinating insight into her own writing, she talks about Demon Copperhead. During the interview she talks about how we never read the same book twice, because we are never the same person we were on previous readings. This resonated with so much of what you said when you talked about Gilead. Thanks for a really interesting introspective on your top 25 of the last 25 years - I look forward to watching more of your videos 😊
I hope you like Gilead! The Poisonwood Bible is definitely one I recommend--especially if you liked Demon Copperhead. I'll need to listen to that podcast episode with Barbara Kingsolver--I always love hearing her discuss her work. Thank you for watching! 🥂
This is a great list, of which I have only read (and loved) 4, but have many more on my TBR. Just started Interpreter of Maladies yesterday and holy wow, is it good!
Great list. Many on the list are also my favorites. Yes, I can tell all the hard work that went into preparation for this video. I don't think I have the stamina to do the same. Poisonwood Bible is one of my all-time favorite books. In addition I love The Good Lord Bird. We will be seeing James McBride in August 2023 in Nashville. So excited. Thanks for a wonderful video
I haven’t read enough for a top 25 yet. My number 1 book is Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and is the only one on this list I’ve read. I found it darkly beautiful, very tender and moving scenes between the man and the boy. Most emotional I’ve ever gotten over a novel. House of Leaves is high on my list as well, it really hooked me when I read it in 2006. The highly detailed, esoteric academia nature of it really made it feel real. I’ve gotten back into science fiction lately, and two newer books I really loved are Blake Crouch’s Recursion and Andy Wier’s Project Hail Mary. In terms of prose and character development, they’re not that sophisticated, but they both told stories I found fascinating with really solid pacing. It’s older than 25 years, but I would highly recommend Octavia Butler’s Dawn (book 1 of a trilogy) if you’d like to explore some science fiction. It’s some of the best prose I’ve ever read. I’ve heard many great things about Gilead so that’s been on my list. I look forward to reading some of your other top picks as well, thank you.
"The Road" is one of the best post-apocalyptic novels. The children chained to the wagon train as it trudged along is one scene not depicted in the movie. Couldn't do it. Could film it easily enough, but couldn't release it to the public. And if you read the book, I know you know why. That sequence is just one part of the novel where Cormac McCarthy really hit the nail on the head, such a realistic portrayal--"The Road" is--of how awful a post-apocalyptic world would be.
This is a wonderful video, and so are the comments. Totally agree about Lahiri, Kingsolver, McBride, Groff, Keegan, and Philyaw. I'm a little late to the discussion, but I would also add: *Richard Powers' The Overstory (not an easy read but wow); Roth's The Human Stain; Also (for books translated into English): Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan series; Ferrante's Days of Abandonment; Tokarczuk's Drive Your Plow... ; & W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz. Thanks for all you do. Love your channel.
Not in order but these are among the top books I would consider: Ring Shout - P. Djèlí Clark A Perfect Spy - John le Carré The Three Body Problem - Cixin Liu (Translated by Ken Liu) The Wall of Storms - Ken Liu Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie Shadow Life - Hiromo Goto & Ann Xu The Enigma of Rm 622 - Joël Dicker Lady Joker - Kaoru Takamura Fool’s Assassin - Robin Hobb Butterfly Winter - William Kinsella Alif the Unseen - G Willow Wilson American Gods - Neil Gaiman Hamnet - Maggie O’Farrell The Removed - Brandon Hobson Razorblade Tears - SA Cosby Piranesi - Suzanna Clarke The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr The Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler The Winter King - Bernard Cornwell The Immortals of Tehran - Alireza Taheri Araghi And, for my taste, you are exactly right about Louise Erdrich, Barbara Kingsolver, & Hillary Mantel.
You have given me a great list to read since my favorite authors made the cut. Erdrich, Kingsolver, Proulx. You have filled up my autumn with recommendations. I look forward to it.
This was a great video and it made me think. First thing - I love your use of the term cilantro book. Second - I run into problems making a list of my own like this because I don’t often read the type of books that make it on to these lists. I also need to include some non-fiction which is usually parsed out into its own list. So I made a shorter list that includes some nonfiction. Strange Weather in Tokyo, White Oleander, Circe, The Lesser Bohemians, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, American Gods, The Housekeeper and the Professor, The Outlaw Ocean, Idaho, Cleopatra A Life, The 7th Function of Language and The Machineries of Empire series.
I feel like any list of best books is welcome regardless of whether or not it has the "conventional" choices. Lists without the typical books can be more interesting! I haven't read any of the books on your list, so it definitely caught my attention.
If you haven't read it, do yourself a favour and read "Five Little Indians" by Michelle Good. It has received a lot of love from Canadian readers, but I rarely hear of anyone outside of Canada talking about this book. It's my favourite book of the last several years. (and if you can't tell by my spelling, yes, I am Canadian 😆).
Thank you for creating and sharing such wonderful and inspiring content! You have really encouraged me to consider how I can elevate and expand my reading experience. I've even started to consider developing a few long term reading projects for myself because of you. Your enthusiasm and passion for reading is delightful. I also really appreciate your videos with your husband. He is so sweet and I love that you both share such deep love and appreciation for reading. I hope Jamie continues to heal and feel better. Sending lots of love to you and your family.
Loved this video, thank you! I have read (and agree with you on) quite a few of these. But the others are quickly getting added to my tbr. I probably would have had Gilead as my number 1 too (or at least top 5) but I can’t actually bring myself to reread it because the first time was such a magical reading experience and I’m worried it won’t be as I’ve remembered it.
Some of my all time faves on this list. Never Let Me Go is probably my number 1…my gut punch reaction to that book is still with me almost 20 years later. And your reaction to Gilead (I love) was my same type of reaction to Lila in the same series- I saw so much of my life in that book and it just made me cry and cry…for various reasons! I didn’t love Housekeeping but maybe I was too old when I read it. I probably would’ve included Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet on my own list but those are in translation.
Never Let Me Go is definitely a haunting novel. I'm not sure how I would respond to Housekeeping if I read it now--I think it would be the opposite of the experience I had with Gilead. I've only read the first Neapolitan book but it was very good.
Over the years I have not often been one of those "I saw the movie, didn't read the book" people, but for "Never Let Me Go" I'm one of those bad people. Very special film. Touching. But mostly there's the "I'm a great artist, why am I not recognized as a great artist??!!" feeling that the movie conveys, and we artists eat it up. Crying for ourselves. Of course, one of the main characters is a visual artist, and my artistry is with words. But same thing.
First time viewer, loved it! Your earnest hard work and brief descriptions are perfect for me. I'll be exploring your other videos and look forward to new videos as well. I loved Poisonwood Bible too.
Great list. I agree with you on Gilead. Definitely in my top 5 all-time favorites and I'm due for a reread. My top 5: The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes Gilead, Marilynne Robinson People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks Wolf Hall trilogy, Hilary Mantel The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Steven Erikson (fantasy series) Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier would be in this list but misses eligibility by a year.
Love Songs of WEB DuBois and Gilead definitely would be in the top five of my list. If pressed. I'd say Louise Erdrich may be my favorite author, and Love Medicine in the running for my favorite book of all time, but I'd have to look closer at her books in the last 25 years to pick a favorite. Ditto for everything else....I don't think in terms of years, so I'd have to think about it!! Thanks for a fun video!
I would highly recemmond... 1..Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree 1,Kafka on the shore by Haruki Murakami 3 Feast of GOAT by Mario Vergas ilosa 4.Klara and the sun by Ishiguro 5.All the pretty horses by Cormac Macrathy 6.Unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kunders 7.poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver... 8.Correction by jonathan Franzon 9.Autumn by Ali smith 10.Buddha of Subarbia by Hanif kureshi Above lists are my favourte..They are truly awesome..Greetings From Kathmandu..Nepal.😁
I'm new to your channel. Don't know where I have been 😊. Clearly I have lots of catching up to do. Really pleased you picked 2 of my top 25. Wow. The Poison wood Bible and Gilead.
I just went out and grabbed Empire Falls and Train Dreams thanks to this vid. I am especially interested in EF because nostalgia and existential dread is something I struggle with deeply now that I am in my mid-40s. The Poisonwood Bible and Gilead are already on my TBR shelf. I will def look into some of the others.
@@SupposedlyFunI finally sat down to read Train Dreams tonight and read it straight through in one sitting without coming up for air. It was amazing and I would've never known about it had I not watched this video a while back. So, thanks again!
This was a very fun and interesting video Greg! You are always so thoughtful in what you say about books. I loved Gilead also, the writing is so beautiful and it is a book that really stays with you. Looking forward to reading more Robinson in the future.
Thank you for this list! I picked up a few books that you recommended. I am currently reading Matrix which so far is gearing up to be really great. I did also read The Rain Heron.. I felt that the majority of the book was exactly as you described and very engaging but I wasn't sure how I felt about the ending. Once again thank you!
I knew as soon as you said you DNFd The Goldfinch that I could trust your taste. Added 6 books from your list to my TBR, and had already read 5 others. Great video!
This was such a well thought out video! I added a few of these books to my own TBR list, including your cheat book about the dust bowl that I had never heard of until today. Every book you mentioned that I have read would have been included in my own list, but I would have also included Rebecca Makkai’s the Great Believers and Love Songs of WEB DuBois would have been in my top five. I’ve had Gilead and Call me by your Name on my TBR list for years so this video might motivate me to finally read them. You said you never read Tin Man, is there a reason? You mentioned a couple small books that pack a punch in this video, when I think of small books that pack a punch Tin Man is always the first book that comes to mind. I loved this video and look forward to reading both the new additions to my TBR list as well as some of the gems that have been sitting there for awhile 🙂
I’m so glad you loved this video! I think I was concerned about recency bias with Love Songs of WEB du Bois, but I should have made it top five. The Great Believers was on my longlist. Honestly, sometimes a book I really want to read just keeps sliding by-and that’s the case with Tin Man. I also think so many people have told me that I’ll love it that I’m worried it’s become overhyped. But I need to get over myself and try it.
As for a mix of my favorite fiction and nonfiction I've read as an adult, that will be a challenge to narrow down. Educated by Tara Westover, Lab Girl by Hope Jahren, The Field of Blood by Joanne Freeman, Jesus and John Wayne by Kristen Kobes DuMez, Floating Coast by Bathsheba Demuth, The Deep by Rivers Solomon, The Road to Unfreedom by Timothy Snyder, The Bone Witch series by Rin Chupeco, The Beast's Heart by Leife Shallcross, Red Notice by Bill Browder, Say Nothing by Patrick Keefe, Hero of Two Worlds by Mike Duncan, As You Wish by Cary Elwes, Revolutionary Backlash by Rosemarie Zagarri, An Empire on the Edge by Nick Bunker, The Widow Washington by Martha Saxton, They Were Her Property by Stephanie Jones-Rodgers, The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray
Greg Thank you for your list … Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favourite writers and I have always said that for me Poisonwood Bible has been my favourite read . Because of this I feel that we appreciate the same thing about books . I will add a lot of your suggestions to my reading list. 😊❤ 📚
Thanks for the well thought out list. I predicted you were going to say Demon Copperhead then when you said you were going to wait on it . I said Poisonwood Bible and Gilead was a good choice. I’m glad you are going to try to get to more translated fiction, it’s a whole big world out there
Thank you for all the time and thought put into this video! Love your compilation. I am inspired to give Gilead another go - had tried in my 20s and put it down then.
How lovely that you included Australians in your list. The Yield would make my top 25 too. Robbie Arnott is in with a chance of winning the 2023 Miles Franklin Award today with Limberlost, I can't pick between either Limberlost or The Rain Heron as my favourites of his. I love The Poisonwood Bible that would also make my list. The only other one I've read is the Claire Keegan and I prefer her Foster. So many of the others are still on my TBR and I might add a couple more. A great idea to share. Happy Reading.
This is an interesting premise for a list, can't say I'd personally agree with your choices though since I'm not really literary fiction reader and haven't really heard or read any of those (i prefer historical fiction, mystery novels and SFF). Still i like seeing what others find the best books since lists are generally very subjective to our own tastes and experiences in life. 😊
I definitely have blind spots in my reading. I'm hoping others will pick up the idea and share their list to balance things out. And I love seeing how other people fill out their lists!
_The Murmur of Bees_ has been my favorite book since I read it. By Sofía Segovia, written in Spanish ( _El Murmullo de las Abejas_ ), translated into English, this book of magical realism is stunningly beautiful and profound. Not a day goes by that I don't think of Simonopio. When I finished reading it, I said college courses will make it required reading within 10 years. I stand by that. I hope it will find its way into your hands.
Great list. I finally picked up Love Songs of WEB du Bois. I don’t know if I could narrow a list down like this. The Poisonwood Bible is one of my all time faves. Still need to read Demon Copperhead. Jhumpa Lahiri is a fave too. 😊💙
- Call me by your name - Andre Aciman (2007) - A man called Ove - Fredrik Backman (2012) - The shadow of the wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón (2001) - The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (2003) - Piranesi - Susanna Clarke (2020) - The night Circus - Erin Morgenstern (2011) - Kafka on the shore - Haruki Murakami (2002) - Where the crawdads sing - Delia Owens (2018) - Atonement - Ian McEwan (2001) - The song of Achilles - Madeline Miller (2011) - Never let me go - Kazuo Ishiguro (2005) - House of leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski (2000) - Words of Radiance (The stormlight Archive 2) - Brandon Sanderson (2014) - The Name of the wind (Kingkiller Chronicle 1) - Patrick Rothfuss (2007) - The sword of Kaigen - M.L. Wang (2018) - A storm of swords (A song of ice and fire 3) - George R.R.Martin (2000)
@@Ninaofthe90s Turns out I miscounted. I've read six! Call Me By Your Name, A Man Called Ove, The Kite Runner, Atonement, The Song of Achilles, and Never Let Me Go.
@@SupposedlyFun the last 4 on the list are part of a fantasy series - so that might not be your thing. But out of the other ones you haven't read I definitely recommend "The shadow of the wind" and "where the crawdads sing" the most!
@@Ninaofthe90s I've heard a lot of good things about Shadow of the Wind. I should read it at some point. I saw the movie for Crawdads, but I have a copy of the book waiting for me.
A list imma try to finish within this year and the next...a very strong list, no doubt...I did see a very good number of regulars from binging your channel over the past year!! I have only read one...Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan and own other 7 from the list!!! So looking forward to exploring your comprehensive and passionate picks with shrewd objectivity...a very immediate addition to my TBR for sure 💙👍💙👌💙📚💯
Great idea for a video. I wish the Times would rerun this list every few years (and considering how much people love clicking on top X lists, I actually don't understand why they haven't)! It's interesting to think about how reputations of books even in the quite recent past shift over time. I really have not read enough of contemporary literary fiction to offer a list this exhaustive. My main contenders as of now for the title would simply be Gilead and The Known World (and perhaps DeLillo's Underworld would've made it if this had been done one year ago). I'm still in search of books from this century to reach those heights for me, so excited to read some of the recs in this video that I haven't gotten to yet.
Great choice! What a book! It's been on my top 10 list forever. It's not quite at the top, because my #1 and #2 spots are taken by The Enchanted by Denfeld, and Mink River by Doyle, respectively. I think you'd really love The Enchanted -- it makes you sob for the awful, but also for the beautiful. 💚
"Cloud Atlas" is the most fascinating work of fiction I've ever read. (Don't see the movie, which was a disaster.) But the book can change your life in some surprisingly wonderful ways.
Kent Haruf’s trilogy especially the first two Plainsong and Eventide would be on my list. Homegoing is the perfect novel in my opinion; it’s a writing prof’s dream from 1st paragraph to the last, and would be on my 25 best book list also.
I've been wanting to read Haruf for about twenty years at this point and somehow have failed spectacularly. The only book of his I have read is Our Souls At Night, which was great.
There are so many wonderful books that I love on your list, and some that I own but haven't read yet, including Homegoing, The Plague of Doves and The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. A video about "cilantro" books would probably yield a lively batch of comments!
1. Ducks, Newberryport is the best. Read it sooner than later. 2. I've read very few from your list, so won't comment. However I did notice several crucial contemporary literary novelists missing, perhaps just pushed out by others you prefer, or whatever. I'll list 25 here; anybody looking for a good book could use this list as a reliable head start: Martin Amis Muriel Barbery Peter Carey J.M. Coetzee Doouglas Coupland Jennifer Egan Bret Easton Ellis Lucy Ellmann Gillian Flynn Tana French Michel Houellebecq John Irving Cixin Liu Tom McCarthy David Mitchell Jean d'Ormesson Jose Saramago Lionel Schriver Gaétan Soucy Neal Stephenson Donna Tart William T. Vollmann
Interesting list! I have read some of those authors and some were edged out and others were not my cup of tea. And there are many others I still need to try!
Before I watched this, I knew my next read was going to be Empire Falls, so I was happy to see it on your list.(I usually decide my next read when I'm about halfway through my current read.) Small Things Like These was on my Amazon wish list. It isn't anymore, I have ordered it. Poisonwood Bible is on my very extensive and overflowing tbr bookcase . I think I'm going to have to purchase Gilead and squeeze that onto my tbr bookcase. Great video!
Very interesting list, thank you! I've added quite a few to my TBR. For me, the top 3 are "Atonement" by Ian McEwan, and 2 translated works: all of Karl Ove Knausgaard's autobiographical books, starting with "death in the family", translated from the Norwegian; "History of violence" by Edouard Louis, translated from the French.
@Mauro Biglino The Naked Bible ,& When The Gods Walked Among Us & God's of the Bible @ Paul Wallis Escaping Eden & Scars of Eden & Echoes of Eden & The Conspiracy of Eden @ Marcel Grauile The Pale Fox & Conversations With a Dogon Elder. These are the proper books on OUR origins The Nommo created US before the Anunnaki Enslaved Us genetically altering Us downgrading Us from x 12 strands DNA to x 2 strand DNA where WE only experience 16% of OUR reality in the Materium.
Thank you for this. I would also consider Amor Towles's "A Gentleman in Moscow," "Cutting for Stone" " by Abraham Verghese , Saint Maybe" by Anne Tyler, and "A God in Ruins" by Kate Atkinson.
Thanks for the list! Two authors from your list who wrote books superior to the ones included here: Erdrich’s Master Butchers Singing Club Ishiguro’s Klara and the sun. I admit, didn’t read Never L M Go with enough focused attention. But Plague of Doves… it struck me as a set of short stories shoehorned into a novel, so some of the characters’ actions and attitudes seemed inconsistent across chapters.
To be honest, I was not a fan of Klara and the Sun. To me, it felt like a lesser rehash of Never Let Me Go. I haven’t read Master Butchers yet, but many of Erdrich’s books have stories that span many characters and storylines.
I loved your Top 25!!! So many I haven't read that now are going on the to be read list. My Number one from the last 25 is easily Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin. That book is stuck to me
Wow! So well read. Every book that you listed that so have read are books that I really enjoy and would be in my top 25 - Kav and Clay, Road, Homegoing, Ishiguro) makes me keen to check out others from this list 👍
What a compelling video! In my previous life, I just read "for funzies"....now, in my 60th year, I feel more like a scholar and I wish there was more time in a day! I want to re-read Kingsolver because I found her soooo very clever! The next time I read her, I will bring my highlighter! Have you read Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr yet? (It's one of my very favorites!) It has stayed with me 100% since I have read it. When you dive in, it's seems to be a series of disjointed stories that weave in and out of oneanother...with a wide variety of experiences and characters spanning the course of many many centuries, and yet, some how the Author weaves them all together quite smartly as it concludes. And the conclusion...my goodness! I didn't see that one coming AT ALL! 6 stars from me!
Interesting list. I've read 10 of the books from your list and from those ten my top three would be 1. Plague of Doves, 2. Kavalier and Clay, 3 The Yield. I have a copy of the Poisonwood Bible which sounds very good but Gilead wasn't one I really enjoyed.
Very good collection! Definitely added the ones I haven’t read to my list. I would strongly recommend Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon, I truly believe it’s the best novel of the 21st century (or, less definitively, my personal favorite) Edit (near misses): so glad u mentioned hamnet!! I thought it was phenomenal
You have outdone yourself! I think this is my favorite of all your videos. I have read 16 of your 25 and agree with your choices. My personal favorites from your list are: Poisonwood Bible, Gilead, Empire Falls, Kavalier & Clay, Train Dreams and Wolf Hall. My favorite book in the last 25 years is The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. That man’s writing and observations on life just hit me in all the feels! I would also include at least one of Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe books, probably Independence Day. One of your local authors, James Lee Burke, has recently published a piece of literary fiction called Flags on the Bayou, and it blew me away. It is currently my favorite book of 2023. Thanks for the great video!
A book that stands out for me is The Secret Life of Bees published in 2001. I still think about it. Also, if you like Barbara Kingsolver, try an older book of hers called The Bean Tees. That one has stuck with me as well.
I have so much reading to do! But off the top of my head I really loved: In the Distance - Hernan Diaz (therefore Trust was disappointing) Piranesi - Susanna Clarke And Zeroville - Steve Erickson I really hated Bewilderment by Richard Powers - so it’s hard for me to want to read Overstory. Anyway just some random thoughts.
Hello Greg, I enjoy your videos even though we have very different tastes. I Could not handle the Poison wood Bible and I love to foster more than small things. But that’s what makes booktube so unique and fun. And thanks for the video suggestion. Aloha
When I saw the title I thought you were doing the best book for each of the previous 25 years, which seemed an impossible task. Although I wonder if what you have actually done isn't even more difficult. The list of acclaimed books from the past 25 years that I haven't read yet is a lot longer than yours. I definitely read more older books and just can't keep up with publishing. Oryx and Crake from your "haven't read" list would definitely be on my 25 best list though. From your 25 list, I would probably include Kavalier & Clay. (Ten of the others are already on my TBR. Definitely bumping Gilead and the Poisonwood Bible up towards the top of that tbr list.) I would add Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to my list, for sure. That book has really lingered since I read it four or five years ago.
I got in the habit of staying up to date on newer books while I was working at Borders. I credit that experience with how I usually do a mix of older and new books.
Top five of the last 25 Gilead - Marilynne Robinson Middlesex - Jeffery Eugenides The Tenth of December - George Saunders Neapolitan Quartet - Elena Ferrante A Manual for Cleaning Women - Lucia Berlin
Also, this is a great video. Must have taken you so long to think about and put together. I decided I would only add one book from your list to my tbr (the list is getting too big to add any more) I think I’ll go with Gilead.
I like your list! You reminded me of a couple I’ve wanted to read. Off the top of my head I think I’d also include Lost Children Archive, Middlesex, Cloud Atlas, White is for Witching, and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. Maybe also 2666…I mean, I couldn’t finish it 😂 but I could tell it was brilliant.
@@SupposedlyFun Good point, I had the same thought after I wrote this comment. I read it when it first came out, and was blown away by the writing, Cal’s struggle felt so real, and I would have called it my favorite book for several years, but I do wonder how well it’s aged.
Same here with "2666." I read about three-quarters of it, then quit. I found it moving for a while, but then it just fizzled. Or I grew bored? Can't remember exactly what happened. I think if I tackled something similar now, I would quit even sooner. Why? Because at least twice as many males disappear in these kinds of deals, only to be ignored by everyone. Just the cartel doing cartel things is why all the missing people.
Interesting list - I just of just dabble in lots of genres so mine is all over the place. Also to me 21st century seems a better cut of so didnt want to go before 2000. I just did 20 :- Caitlin Kiernan - The Drowning Girl - kept to 1 book per author or would have been a short story collection by her too House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski - The way the sentences are constructed is a bit pedestrian and there are points when this is a slog but it is so unique and whatever efforts you put into it get rewarded with a compelling main plot and many Easter eggs Junot Diaz - Hard keeping just to one but This is How You Lose Her just wins out - I just love his writing Richard Ford - It feels a cheat because my favourite of his by far is Rock Springs which was written earlier but both Canada and Multitude of Sins would still make the 21st century list - I think I liked Multitude of Sins Slightly more The Dead Lake - Hamid Ismailov - One of those that I really liked but might have just given 4 stars to. However this haunting fable like tale has lived long in my head afterwards so that jumps it into the list Danez Smith - Black Movie - I could have done the full list with poetry but feel that should in some ways be a seperate list - But I could not leave this one out Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan - A very compelling SF tale full of ideas - I DNFed the second in the series but this I eat up China Mieville The City and the City - another great weirdish SF ish work that manages to blend genres very satisfyingly Lydia Davis - Short Story collection - I got the complete Lydia Davis and read it all together and then went on to read Can;'t and wont all within a short time of each other - as a result its hard to choose a specific collection but her distinctive writing style certainly deserves a place Cory Doctorow Little Brother - A YA SF tale that at times feels a bit preachy but just really captures a moment in time now past so very well A river Called Time Mia Couto - Much to love in this magical realist tale - Meg Wolitzer - The Wife - really well done, very memorable and whilst it does not 100% live up to its fantastic start it comes close Brian Selznick - The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Just a wonderful reading experience - a great hybrid of a novel and a graphical novel Lorrie Moore - A Gate in the Stairs - I really like her short fiction too - This just takes the spot A Land Without Jasmine - Wajdi Al-Ahdal - Sort blend of crime fiction and other elements that I dont want to share as they can spoil it - really short but also really memorable Natalie Shapero - Hard Child - Another poetry collection I will squeeze in - but been reading it and re-reading it so much lately it deserves a spot - other great collections that I really wanted to include but didnt let them take over the list include Tony Hoagland, Dean Young, Hannah Lowe, Carol Ann Duffy, Robert Wood Lynn, Natalie Diaz and Kay Ryan The Night Fairy - Laura Amy Schultz - A really great childrens story - there are probably loads of great ones I have read Phillip Roth - The Human Stain Stone in a Landslide Maria Barbal - This was written before the 21st century but not translated into English - Its a wonderful novella from Pierene Press about catalan Spain and a womans life in a rural area. Counting it feels kind of wrong but excluding it feels worse. Interesting translated fiction should not suffer from categorisation issues I excluded Non fiction and drama and otherwise would have a lot of those in there - so much great works of each. Crime and Thrillers are hard to include because they are often read once and done. I also excluded graphical novels as I feel many of the strongest in that genre are autobiographical and I was excluding non-fiction otherwise I would have included a drifting life, Persepolis, days of destruction, days of revolt etc.
This Is How You Lose Her was on my longlist and didn't make the final 25. You have some very interesting selections! I need to catch up to a lot of them. I've had Lorrie Moore and Lydia Davis on my pile of possibilities for a while--I have one book for each of them that has been patiently waiting for me on my shelves.
Quite a list. I haven't read most of them but your selection of Never Let Me Go gives you full credibility to me. You mention short story collections -- have you read Ted Chiang's collections Stories of Your Life and Others, and Exhalation? There's some great ones, in my humble opinion. Any thoughts on Pynchon's Bleeding Edge , or Inherent Vice, which fit in your timeframe? I know that lots of Pynchon fans consider these "Pynchon Lite", but I enjoyed them. I was taken aback by one of the comments by Susan Townsend praising A Gentleman in Moscow which I stopped reading at page 51 (just pulled it from the bookshelf and I had a marker in the page), but I think I will give it another try if she has devoted quite a bit of time to it (5 readings). Someone else recommended Le Carre's A Perfect Spy, but that came out in the mid 80s. A really great read, that one. Speaking of spy novels I certainly enjoy Mick Herron's Slow Horses series. Anyhow thanks for doing this video. I have never gotten around to Cormac McCarthy but I intend to shortly.
I’ve actually never read a Pynchon book, but at some point will likely try Gravity’s Rainbow. And I have not read Chiang’s stories, but I’ve heard good things. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I got some good recs from this list, so ty there. For me, i got a bit more from Wolf Hall than Poisonwood Bible or Gilead; that would be my top dog of what I've read of this selection. I also never really got much out of The Road, and would elect Stella Maris as the best of McCarthy latter day output. But I don't think that opinion is reflective of most critics. Here are a few books I think would fit in well to the conversation: Disgrace by J M Coetzee: As violent as it is heartbreaking. Savage Detectives and 2666 by Roberto Bolaño: The 1.a and 1.b on the list of greatest literature of the last quarter century in my eyes; one of my GOAT'd authors. Anything by Houellebecq: love him or hate him (most of his work falls on the latter side for me), the conversation about modern literature isn't resolved until he is at least acknowledged. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt: Just a damn good book. Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon: haven't actually got to it yet, but my fanboyish compells me to have an appearance by Tom.
Disgrace was on my longlist and it was hard to let it go. Other than that, I haven't read any of the books you would add. I had a long debate with myself about whether or not Wolf Hall should be in my top 5. I still waffle back and forth about it.
Great video. And so many women - wonderful. I've read 4, and have noted down 15 others (some of which I was peripherally aware of, just as a kind of underlining). Thanks! The best fiction reading experiences I can recall from recent years were The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch and Burntcoat by Sarah Hall. Oh, and Ducks, Newburyport.
I haven’t read any of your picks and only own Ducks, Newburyport-so thanks for sharing. I didn’t realize how female-driven the list was until I started pulling all the books off of my shelves. It was a pleasant surprise.
Tricky to come up with titles, as after making a list, a book that you had completely forgotten pops into your head, so here are some off the top of my head : Toibin's "The Master", "Shuggie Bain", "Girl, Woman, Other", Jaume Cabre's "Confessions", Orhan Pamuk's "A Strangeness in My Mind", "The Luminaries", "This Thing of Darkness", "Atonement", "The Sense of an Ending", "Cloud Atlas" and from two wonderful writers, "The Lacuna" ties with "The Poisonwood Bible" and my favourite Robinson set in Gilead is "Home", but "Lila" remains to be read.
This is more a “my favorite” list than an objective evaluation. Otherwise Murikami would be on list. Try Killing Commendatore or even short story compilation, First Person Singular. Also agree that Gentleman in Moscow should be included. Also would include Pat Conroy, such as South of Broad. Hallmarks for me require elegant writing style, a progressive narrative, evocative language, but most importantly the novel expands my way of looking at things. Am I sad when the book ends because I do not want to leave these characters. As a high school student, I twice missed my bus stop because I was lost in Les Miserables. Now that’s a novel and may explain why I still tend more towards the classics.
To be fair, if I included books I haven’t read in the name of objectivity, I would be guessing. And I would rather have an accurate list based on experience than guess. Thanks for sharing your picks.
1998: I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb 1999: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson 2000: A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin (this was brutal, because I love Kavalier & Clay as well) 2001: Life of Pi by Yann Martel 2002: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 2003: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri 2004: Let the Right One In by John Lindqvist 2005: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 2006: The Road by Cormac McCarthy 2007: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss 2008: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein 2009: The Help by Kathryn Stockett 2010: The Passage by Justin Cronin 2011: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 2012: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 2013: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult 2014: The Traitor's Blade by Sabastien de Castell 2015: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah 2016: Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz 2017: Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames 2018: The Book of M by Peng Shepherd 2019: Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid 2020: Battle Ground by Jim Butcher 2021: The Songbook of Benny Lament by Amy Harmon 2022: Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
So here's a spoiler: I'm going to keep updating and working on my list for the next two years so in 2025 I can do "The 25 Best Books of the 21st Century (So Far)." Demon Copperhead is on that list at the moment.
So, I haven't read a lot of the "big" books that have been on all the best-of lists year to year, but I went to my 5-star shelf on GR and sorted by pub date and put together a list of my personal top 25 from the past 25 years. There are probably some here that some people would roll their eyes at, but you know, this was about my own enjoyment and impact from the books. 1. Daughter of the Forest (1999) 2. Fingersmith (2002) 3. The Hummingbird’s Daughter (2005) 4. Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) 5. A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) 6. Olive Kitteridge (2008) 7. Wolf Hall (2009) 8. The Surrendered (2009) 9. The Night Circus (2011) 10. Dear Life (2011) 11. My Brilliant Friend (2011) 12. The World We Found (2012) 13. The Snow Child (2012) 14. The Golem and the Jinni (2013) 15. Homegoing (2016) 16. The Underground Railroad (2016) 17. The Weight of Ink (2017) 18. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (2017) 19. Circe (2018) 20. Girl, Woman, Other (2019) 21. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019) 22. Cantoras (2019) 23. The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020) 24. Hamnet (2020) 25. Sistersong (2021) And then the top 5 from that would be (starting from 5th) Homegoing, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Circe, The Weight of Ink, and my absolute favorite, my top book I've ever read or likely will ever read, was Hamnet.
Great list, some of my faves and a few I will look for now after hearing your intros. I loved The White Tiger, I hope you will make time for it soon. Cloud Atlas too. I wanted to ask if you'd read/had opinions about Cloudsplitter (1998), one of my faves that still haunts me. I had such a strong negative reaction to the series version of Good Lord Bird that I had no desire to read it. I find it hard to imagine the setting and themes of Cloudsplitter from a comedic perspective. If you never read Cloudsplitter I highly recommend it, more grounded in history and a very powerful impact. Poisonwood Bible is also one of my favorites, and Gilead has been on my reread list for a long time, after lots of life experience like you;) Life of Pi, another one to read if you hadn't gotten there yet, I don't think I heard you mention in it in your still to read list
My wife and I loved your list even though we’ve read only a few…a brief history of seven killings needs to be read…I would also pick poison wood as the best…I however enjoyed goldfinch…would also put on on franzens corrections and even though it’s a bit rough Bob Shacochis the woman who lost her soul…
Small things like these is a wonderful book. Happily it is shortly shortly to be released as a movie starring Cillian Murphy, I am really looking forward to it
- The Happening, Annie Ernaux (2000)
- Atonement, Ian McEwan (2001)
- Fingersmith , Sarah Waters (2002)
- Never let me go, Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
- Half of a yellow sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2006)
- The whole My struggle series, Karl Ove Knausgaard (2009 and onwards)
- Bondrée, Andrée A Michaud (2014)
- The Kingdom, Emmanuel Carrère (2014)
- The Catholic School, Edoardo Albinatti (2016)
- And their children after them, Nicolas Mathieu (2018)
- Crimson, Niviaq Korneliussen (2019)
- Homeland elegies, Ayad Akhtar (2020)
Thank you for sharing your list! Some solid choices and many I haven’t read yet.
I've read more of your list.
I love Sarah Waters' work
@@shelleyaultman1193 I still need to catch up to Sarah Waters.
I'm about to order several from your list : Never Let Me Go; The Secrets Lives of
Church Ladies; and Plague of Doves -- I'm anxious to read these. I'd like to recommend the Susan Howatch series about the C of E books. Excellent! Hyperion series by Dan Simmons; the Hugh Howey Silo series; and The Foundation classics by Asimov
I just discovered your channel not too long ago and I'm so glad I did! As a hardcore music nerd trying to get back into reading as an adult, it's overwhelming how many books are out there that I really want to read. Your down-to-earth personality and enthusiasm for literature really resonated with me so I will gladly check out these books you have suggested. Thank you so much for everything you do and keep up the good work!
I'm new to his channel as well as in like the last 3 weeks. I'm watching his back list plus new ones. I'm sorry I didn't find him during the covid lock down he's more productive than pimple popping videos
My favorite of the last 25 years is “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles, as evidenced by the fact that I’ve read it at least five times since it came out in 2016. It would be in the top 25 on my 75 years list (I’m 73) and my top 50 all time.
I somehow still haven’t read an Amor Towles book and I need to fix that.
I absolutely loved this book! Couldn't agree more.
@@pokemonmaster9196 I'll get to it at some point!
Thank you - I just reserved it at my library.
If you haven't read Towles' The Lincoln Highway, I would recommend it!
I love your enthusiasm in your videos, Greg! I read Gilead this year and it's easily one of my favorite books ever. So much heart and humanity in this work. Always looking forward to your videos!
Thank you so much!
This has been the first video of your channel I've watched - and I'm hooked! Fascinating list, a few of which I have read (Never Let Me Go and Small Things Like these I've read this year and could very much see them making their way on to my own list). There are a few there that I've wanted to read - The Poisoneood Bible is definitely one I'm going to pick up, especially having recently read Demon Copperhead, which I feel is very likely one of my all time favourite books. Gilead has been sat on my shelves for a few years now and for some reason i always seem to overlook it - having listened to your discussion of it, I have just taken it down and am about to start reading this evening!
I particularly connected with your notion of how books change for us depending on who we are and where we are at in our lives. There's a very interesting podcast by The Women's Fiction Prize called Book Shelfie which interviews female authors and has them talk about five books that have left a mark on them, Barbara Kingsolver was interviewed last week and it was a fascinating insight into her own writing, she talks about Demon Copperhead. During the interview she talks about how we never read the same book twice, because we are never the same person we were on previous readings. This resonated with so much of what you said when you talked about Gilead.
Thanks for a really interesting introspective on your top 25 of the last 25 years - I look forward to watching more of your videos 😊
I hope you like Gilead! The Poisonwood Bible is definitely one I recommend--especially if you liked Demon Copperhead. I'll need to listen to that podcast episode with Barbara Kingsolver--I always love hearing her discuss her work. Thank you for watching! 🥂
This is a great list, of which I have only read (and loved) 4, but have many more on my TBR. Just started Interpreter of Maladies yesterday and holy wow, is it good!
I’m so glad you’re liking it! That’s a book I’m always recommending and I always get so excited when people love it as much as I do.
Great list. Many on the list are also my favorites. Yes, I can tell all the hard work that went into preparation for this video. I don't think I have the stamina to do the same. Poisonwood Bible is one of my all-time favorite books. In addition I love The Good Lord Bird. We will be seeing James McBride in August 2023 in Nashville. So excited. Thanks for a wonderful video
I'm so jealous that you'll get to see McBride in person!
I haven’t read enough for a top 25 yet.
My number 1 book is Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and is the only one on this list I’ve read. I found it darkly beautiful, very tender and moving scenes between the man and the boy. Most emotional I’ve ever gotten over a novel.
House of Leaves is high on my list as well, it really hooked me when I read it in 2006. The highly detailed, esoteric academia nature of it really made it feel real.
I’ve gotten back into science fiction lately, and two newer books I really loved are Blake Crouch’s Recursion and Andy Wier’s Project Hail Mary. In terms of prose and character development, they’re not that sophisticated, but they both told stories I found fascinating with really solid pacing.
It’s older than 25 years, but I would highly recommend Octavia Butler’s Dawn (book 1 of a trilogy) if you’d like to explore some science fiction. It’s some of the best prose I’ve ever read.
I’ve heard many great things about Gilead so that’s been on my list. I look forward to reading some of your other top picks as well, thank you.
Thank you for the recommendations. I've heard good things about the books you mentioned.
"The Road" is one of the best post-apocalyptic novels. The children chained to the wagon train as it trudged along is one scene not depicted in the movie. Couldn't do it. Could film it easily enough, but couldn't release it to the public.
And if you read the book, I know you know why.
That sequence is just one part of the novel where Cormac McCarthy really hit the nail on the head, such a realistic portrayal--"The Road" is--of how awful a post-apocalyptic world would be.
I LOVED THE ROAD!!! ❤
This is a wonderful video, and so are the comments. Totally agree about Lahiri, Kingsolver, McBride, Groff, Keegan, and Philyaw. I'm a little late to the discussion, but I would also add:
*Richard Powers' The Overstory (not an easy read but wow);
Roth's The Human Stain;
Also (for books translated into English):
Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan series;
Ferrante's Days of Abandonment;
Tokarczuk's Drive Your Plow... ;
& W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz.
Thanks for all you do. Love your channel.
Thank you for the kind words. Your additions are interesting!
Not in order but these are among the top books I would consider:
Ring Shout - P. Djèlí Clark
A Perfect Spy - John le Carré
The Three Body Problem - Cixin Liu (Translated by Ken Liu)
The Wall of Storms - Ken Liu
Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie
Shadow Life - Hiromo Goto & Ann Xu
The Enigma of Rm 622 - Joël Dicker
Lady Joker - Kaoru Takamura
Fool’s Assassin - Robin Hobb
Butterfly Winter - William Kinsella
Alif the Unseen - G Willow Wilson
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Hamnet - Maggie O’Farrell
The Removed - Brandon Hobson
Razorblade Tears - SA Cosby
Piranesi - Suzanna Clarke
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr
The Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler
The Winter King - Bernard Cornwell
The Immortals of Tehran - Alireza Taheri Araghi
And, for my taste, you are exactly right about Louise Erdrich, Barbara Kingsolver, & Hillary Mantel.
Great suggestions--thank you for sharing.
Piranesi is a great call!
You have given me a great list to read since my favorite authors made the cut. Erdrich, Kingsolver, Proulx. You have filled up my autumn with recommendations. I look forward to it.
Yay--I hope you enjoy any of the books you pick up!
"All the light we cannot see"....best book I've read in years and years. Couldn't put it down. The Pulitzer prize was so richly deserved.
Wasn’t it a fabulous read!?
❤❤❤❤❤ Agree
This was a great video and it made me think. First thing - I love your use of the term cilantro book.
Second - I run into problems making a list of my own like this because I don’t often read the type of books that make it on to these lists. I also need to include some non-fiction which is usually parsed out into its own list.
So I made a shorter list that includes some nonfiction. Strange Weather in Tokyo, White Oleander, Circe, The Lesser Bohemians, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, American Gods, The Housekeeper and the Professor, The Outlaw Ocean, Idaho, Cleopatra A Life, The 7th Function of Language and The Machineries of Empire series.
I feel like any list of best books is welcome regardless of whether or not it has the "conventional" choices. Lists without the typical books can be more interesting! I haven't read any of the books on your list, so it definitely caught my attention.
Incredible! I’m a reader and I haven’t read a single book on your list. So excited to get started, thank you so much
Thanks for watching!
If you haven't read it, do yourself a favour and read "Five Little Indians" by Michelle Good. It has received a lot of love from Canadian readers, but I rarely hear of anyone outside of Canada talking about this book. It's my favourite book of the last several years. (and if you can't tell by my spelling, yes, I am Canadian 😆).
Thank you for the recommendation! 🇨🇦
I agree! I have the book, too! There are many great Canadian novels, some recent, some older
The Known World by Edward P Jones is magnificent. Lyrical writing and a shocking story. If you were moved by Beloved this will have a similar effect.
I'm really looking forward to reading The Known World.
an absolutely wondrous reading experience
@@shelleyaultman1193 Hopefully, I will ge to it soon!
Thank you for creating and sharing such wonderful and inspiring content! You have really encouraged me to consider how I can elevate and expand my reading experience. I've even started to consider developing a few long term reading projects for myself because of you. Your enthusiasm and passion for reading is delightful. I also really appreciate your videos with your husband. He is so sweet and I love that you both share such deep love and appreciation for reading. I hope Jamie continues to heal and feel better. Sending lots of love to you and your family.
Thank you so much. Joel really is a sweet man--I'm very lucky!
Loved this video, thank you! I have read (and agree with you on) quite a few of these. But the others are quickly getting added to my tbr. I probably would have had Gilead as my number 1 too (or at least top 5) but I can’t actually bring myself to reread it because the first time was such a magical reading experience and I’m worried it won’t be as I’ve remembered it.
I'm the opposite--really looking forward to a reread of Gilead!
Good job, really enjoyed this. What a wide variety of titles you've loved, talked about, retained. There's just nothing like a great book.
Definitely nothinn like a great book!
This was fun.
I started working on my list while I watched.
Ahhh, I can't wait to see your list!
Some of my all time faves on this list. Never Let Me Go is probably my number 1…my gut punch reaction to that book is still with me almost 20 years later. And your reaction to Gilead (I love) was my same type of reaction to Lila in the same series- I saw so much of my life in that book and it just made me cry and cry…for various reasons! I didn’t love Housekeeping but maybe I was too old when I read it. I probably would’ve included Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet on my own list but those are in translation.
Never Let Me Go is definitely a haunting novel. I'm not sure how I would respond to Housekeeping if I read it now--I think it would be the opposite of the experience I had with Gilead. I've only read the first Neapolitan book but it was very good.
Over the years I have not often been one of those "I saw the movie, didn't read the book" people, but for "Never Let Me Go" I'm one of those bad people. Very special film. Touching. But mostly there's the "I'm a great artist, why am I not recognized as a great artist??!!" feeling that the movie conveys, and we artists eat it up. Crying for ourselves. Of course, one of the main characters is a visual artist, and my artistry is with words. But same thing.
@@tarico4436 Very interesting!
Thank you so much for you effort, totally loved your video.
Thank you so much!
First time viewer, loved it! Your earnest hard work and brief descriptions are perfect for me. I'll be exploring your other videos and look forward to new videos as well. I loved Poisonwood Bible too.
Thank you so much! This video was a lot of work but I had a great time doing it.
Great list. I agree with you on Gilead. Definitely in my top 5 all-time favorites and I'm due for a reread.
My top 5: The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes
Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
Wolf Hall trilogy, Hilary Mantel
The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Steven Erikson (fantasy series)
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier would be in this list but misses eligibility by a year.
I haven’t read People of the Book-I’ve only read March by Geraldine Brooks. I need to work through more of her writing.
Great video! Thanks for the recommendations! 😄
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I love Sing Unburied Sing. I have read it twice…..and recommend to everyone!
Jesmyn Ward is a tremendous writer!
So many great recommendations! I had to keep pausing the video to update my list of books I want to read.
I hope you enjoy any of the books you pick up!
Love Songs of WEB DuBois and Gilead definitely would be in the top five of my list. If pressed. I'd say Louise Erdrich may be my favorite author, and Love Medicine in the running for my favorite book of all time, but I'd have to look closer at her books in the last 25 years to pick a favorite. Ditto for everything else....I don't think in terms of years, so I'd have to think about it!! Thanks for a fun video!
Thanks for watching! Louise Erdrich is a very powerful writer.
I would highly recemmond...
1..Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree
1,Kafka on the shore by Haruki Murakami
3 Feast of GOAT by Mario Vergas ilosa
4.Klara and the sun by Ishiguro
5.All the pretty horses by Cormac Macrathy
6.Unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kunders
7.poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver...
8.Correction by jonathan Franzon
9.Autumn by Ali smith
10.Buddha of Subarbia by Hanif kureshi
Above lists are my favourte..They are truly awesome..Greetings From Kathmandu..Nepal.😁
Greetings! Thanks for the suggestions. Several of these have been on my list to get to.
I'm new to your channel. Don't know where I have been 😊. Clearly I have lots of catching up to do. Really pleased you picked 2 of my top 25. Wow. The Poison wood Bible and Gilead.
I just went out and grabbed Empire Falls and Train Dreams thanks to this vid. I am especially interested in EF because nostalgia and existential dread is something I struggle with deeply now that I am in my mid-40s. The Poisonwood Bible and Gilead are already on my TBR shelf. I will def look into some of the others.
I hope you like them as much as I did! I’m in my early forties so I can relate to nostalgia hitting hard.
@@SupposedlyFunI finally sat down to read Train Dreams tonight and read it straight through in one sitting without coming up for air. It was amazing and I would've never known about it had I not watched this video a while back. So, thanks again!
@@jr4bz I'm so glad you enjoyed it! It's a beautiful book.
“A cilantro book” - love that phrase!
Me too!
what does that mean?
It means you either love it or you hate it
This was a very fun and interesting video Greg! You are always so thoughtful in what you say about books. I loved Gilead also, the writing is so beautiful and it is a book that really stays with you. Looking forward to reading more Robinson in the future.
Thank you for this list! I picked up a few books that you recommended. I am currently reading Matrix which so far is gearing up to be really great. I did also read The Rain Heron.. I felt that the majority of the book was exactly as you described and very engaging but I wasn't sure how I felt about the ending. Once again thank you!
I can see how the ending of The Rain Heron might feel a little too tricky.
I knew as soon as you said you DNFd The Goldfinch that I could trust your taste. Added 6 books from your list to my TBR, and had already read 5 others. Great video!
Thank you! I hope you enjoy any of the books you pick up!
Right on!!! THAT was my immediate reaction, too :)
@@d.e.s.2919 Goldfinch DNF-ers need to stick together. 😉
@@SupposedlyFun I Fd it, but it was the last book that I forced myself to F. I learned my lesson the hard way.
@@macylightfoot I can see how that book would be a good source for that lesson.
This was such a well thought out video! I added a few of these books to my own TBR list, including your cheat book about the dust bowl that I had never heard of until today. Every book you mentioned that I have read would have been included in my own list, but I would have also included Rebecca Makkai’s the Great Believers and Love Songs of WEB DuBois would have been in my top five.
I’ve had Gilead and Call me by your Name on my TBR list for years so this video might motivate me to finally read them. You said you never read Tin Man, is there a reason? You mentioned a couple small books that pack a punch in this video, when I think of small books that pack a punch Tin Man is always the first book that comes to mind.
I loved this video and look forward to reading both the new additions to my TBR list as well as some of the gems that have been sitting there for awhile 🙂
I’m so glad you loved this video! I think I was concerned about recency bias with Love Songs of WEB du Bois, but I should have made it top five. The Great Believers was on my longlist.
Honestly, sometimes a book I really want to read just keeps sliding by-and that’s the case with Tin Man. I also think so many people have told me that I’ll love it that I’m worried it’s become overhyped. But I need to get over myself and try it.
As for a mix of my favorite fiction and nonfiction I've read as an adult, that will be a challenge to narrow down. Educated by Tara Westover, Lab Girl by Hope Jahren, The Field of Blood by Joanne Freeman, Jesus and John Wayne by Kristen Kobes DuMez, Floating Coast by Bathsheba Demuth, The Deep by Rivers Solomon, The Road to Unfreedom by Timothy Snyder, The Bone Witch series by Rin Chupeco, The Beast's Heart by Leife Shallcross, Red Notice by Bill Browder, Say Nothing by Patrick Keefe, Hero of Two Worlds by Mike Duncan, As You Wish by Cary Elwes, Revolutionary Backlash by Rosemarie Zagarri, An Empire on the Edge by Nick Bunker, The Widow Washington by Martha Saxton, They Were Her Property by Stephanie Jones-Rodgers, The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray
Greg Thank you for your list … Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favourite writers and I have always said that for me Poisonwood Bible has been my favourite read . Because of this I feel that we appreciate the same thing about books . I will add a lot of your suggestions to my reading list. 😊❤ 📚
I hope you enjoy any of the books you pick up!
Thank you for a fantastic list! Most of them I have read, and the ones I haven’t , went straight onto my TBR list.
I hope you like any of the books you pick up!
Thanks for the well thought out list. I predicted you were going to say Demon Copperhead then when you said you were going to wait on it . I said Poisonwood Bible and Gilead was a good choice. I’m glad you are going to try to get to more translated fiction, it’s a whole big world out there
It definitely is!
What a terrific service ! Thank you sooo much. Really interesting. I definitely will add a few of your top 25 to my TBR.
I hope you enjoy any of the books you pick up!
For sure Siri Hustvedt: What i loves
Thank you for all the time and thought put into this video! Love your compilation. I am inspired to give Gilead another go - had tried in my 20s and put it down then.
Thank you! I hope you enjoy Gilead better the second time around.
How lovely that you included Australians in your list. The Yield would make my top 25 too. Robbie Arnott is in with a chance of winning the 2023 Miles Franklin Award today with Limberlost, I can't pick between either Limberlost or The Rain Heron as my favourites of his.
I love The Poisonwood Bible that would also make my list. The only other one I've read is the Claire Keegan and I prefer her Foster.
So many of the others are still on my TBR and I might add a couple more.
A great idea to share. Happy Reading.
I think the only other Arnott book published in the US right now is Flames. I'm hoping more of his work makes it over here.
Am going to have to respectfully disagree with your choice of Arnott.
It should be Am-To.
No. It's Arnott.
Am-To.
Are-Not!
This is an interesting premise for a list, can't say I'd personally agree with your choices though since I'm not really literary fiction reader and haven't really heard or read any of those (i prefer historical fiction, mystery novels and SFF). Still i like seeing what others find the best books since lists are generally very subjective to our own tastes and experiences in life. 😊
I definitely have blind spots in my reading. I'm hoping others will pick up the idea and share their list to balance things out. And I love seeing how other people fill out their lists!
_The Murmur of Bees_ has been my favorite book since I read it. By Sofía Segovia, written in Spanish ( _El Murmullo de las Abejas_ ), translated into English, this book of magical realism is stunningly beautiful and profound. Not a day goes by that I don't think of Simonopio. When I finished reading it, I said college courses will make it required reading within 10 years. I stand by that. I hope it will find its way into your hands.
That sounds incredible! Thank you for recommending it.
Great list. I finally picked up Love Songs of WEB du Bois. I don’t know if I could narrow a list down like this. The Poisonwood Bible is one of my all time faves. Still need to read Demon Copperhead. Jhumpa Lahiri is a fave too. 😊💙
I hope you enjoy Love Songs as much as I did!
- Call me by your name - Andre Aciman (2007)
- A man called Ove - Fredrik Backman (2012)
- The shadow of the wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón (2001)
- The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (2003)
- Piranesi - Susanna Clarke (2020)
- The night Circus - Erin Morgenstern (2011)
- Kafka on the shore - Haruki Murakami (2002)
- Where the crawdads sing - Delia Owens (2018)
- Atonement - Ian McEwan (2001)
- The song of Achilles - Madeline Miller (2011)
- Never let me go - Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
- House of leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski (2000)
- Words of Radiance (The stormlight Archive 2) - Brandon Sanderson (2014)
- The Name of the wind (Kingkiller Chronicle 1) - Patrick Rothfuss (2007)
- The sword of Kaigen - M.L. Wang (2018)
- A storm of swords (A song of ice and fire 3) - George R.R.Martin (2000)
I’ve only read five from your list. Oops! Thanks for sharing it.
@@SupposedlyFun which ones? 🙂
@@Ninaofthe90s Turns out I miscounted. I've read six! Call Me By Your Name, A Man Called Ove, The Kite Runner, Atonement, The Song of Achilles, and Never Let Me Go.
@@SupposedlyFun the last 4 on the list are part of a fantasy series - so that might not be your thing. But out of the other ones you haven't read I definitely recommend "The shadow of the wind" and "where the crawdads sing" the most!
@@Ninaofthe90s I've heard a lot of good things about Shadow of the Wind. I should read it at some point. I saw the movie for Crawdads, but I have a copy of the book waiting for me.
A list imma try to finish within this year and the next...a very strong list, no doubt...I did see a very good number of regulars from binging your channel over the past year!! I have only read one...Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan and own other 7 from the list!!! So looking forward to exploring your comprehensive and passionate picks with shrewd objectivity...a very immediate addition to my TBR for sure 💙👍💙👌💙📚💯
Greg, thank you for this list. It introduced me to a load of new books and I'll try to pick up a few.
I hope you enjoy any of the books you pick up!
Great idea for a video. I wish the Times would rerun this list every few years (and considering how much people love clicking on top X lists, I actually don't understand why they haven't)! It's interesting to think about how reputations of books even in the quite recent past shift over time.
I really have not read enough of contemporary literary fiction to offer a list this exhaustive. My main contenders as of now for the title would simply be Gilead and The Known World (and perhaps DeLillo's Underworld would've made it if this had been done one year ago). I'm still in search of books from this century to reach those heights for me, so excited to read some of the recs in this video that I haven't gotten to yet.
I'm a little surprised the Times hasn't updated the list as well, given how much time has passed. I definitely want to read The Known World soon!
Great choice! What a book! It's been on my top 10 list forever. It's not quite at the top, because my #1 and #2 spots are taken by The Enchanted by Denfeld, and Mink River by Doyle, respectively. I think you'd really love The Enchanted -- it makes you sob for the awful, but also for the beautiful. 💚
Thanks for the recommendation!
"Cloud Atlas" is the most fascinating work of fiction I've ever read. (Don't see the movie, which was a disaster.) But the book can change your life in some surprisingly wonderful ways.
Great list, well presented. Now a new subscriber.
Thank you so much!
Also was completely blown away by Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved’. It is stunning.
Kent Haruf’s trilogy especially the first two Plainsong and Eventide would be on my list. Homegoing is the perfect novel in my opinion; it’s a writing prof’s dream from 1st paragraph to the last, and would be on my 25 best book list also.
I've been wanting to read Haruf for about twenty years at this point and somehow have failed spectacularly. The only book of his I have read is Our Souls At Night, which was great.
There are so many wonderful books that I love on your list, and some that I own but haven't read yet, including Homegoing, The Plague of Doves and The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. A video about "cilantro" books would probably yield a lively batch of comments!
It probably would!
Yes, love the concept of cilantro books
1. Ducks, Newberryport is the best. Read it sooner than later.
2. I've read very few from your list, so won't comment. However I did notice several crucial contemporary literary novelists missing, perhaps just pushed out by others you prefer, or whatever. I'll list 25 here; anybody looking for a good book could use this list as a reliable head start:
Martin Amis
Muriel Barbery
Peter Carey
J.M. Coetzee
Doouglas Coupland
Jennifer Egan
Bret Easton Ellis
Lucy Ellmann
Gillian Flynn
Tana French
Michel Houellebecq
John Irving
Cixin Liu
Tom McCarthy
David Mitchell
Jean d'Ormesson
Jose Saramago
Lionel Schriver
Gaétan Soucy
Neal Stephenson
Donna Tart
William T. Vollmann
Interesting list! I have read some of those authors and some were edged out and others were not my cup of tea. And there are many others I still need to try!
Before I watched this, I knew my next read was going to be Empire Falls, so I was happy to see it on your list.(I usually decide my next read when I'm about halfway through my current read.) Small Things Like These was on my Amazon wish list. It isn't anymore, I have ordered it. Poisonwood Bible is on my very extensive and overflowing tbr bookcase . I think I'm going to have to purchase Gilead and squeeze that onto my tbr bookcase. Great video!
If only there were more time in the day to help us get to all the books we want to read!
It is good but Nobody's Fool is much better.
Very interesting list, thank you! I've added quite a few to my TBR. For me, the top 3 are "Atonement" by Ian McEwan, and 2 translated works: all of Karl Ove Knausgaard's autobiographical books, starting with "death in the family", translated from the Norwegian; "History of violence" by Edouard Louis, translated from the French.
I should reread Atonement sometime. I remember loving the first and last sections but not liking the middle.
@Mauro Biglino The Naked Bible ,& When The Gods Walked Among Us & God's of the Bible @ Paul Wallis Escaping Eden & Scars of Eden & Echoes of Eden & The Conspiracy of Eden @ Marcel Grauile The Pale Fox & Conversations With a Dogon Elder. These are the proper books on OUR origins The Nommo created US before the Anunnaki Enslaved Us genetically altering Us downgrading Us from x 12 strands DNA to x 2 strand DNA where WE only experience 16% of OUR reality in the Materium.
I did not like atonement
Homegoing or Transcendent Kingdom would be on my list.
I am excited to read Gilead
I love Transcendent Kingdom, but I love Homegoing more.
Thank you for this. I would also consider Amor Towles's "A Gentleman in Moscow," "Cutting for Stone" " by Abraham Verghese , Saint Maybe" by Anne Tyler, and "A God in Ruins" by Kate Atkinson.
Thanks for the list!
Two authors from your list who wrote books superior to the ones included here:
Erdrich’s Master Butchers Singing Club
Ishiguro’s Klara and the sun.
I admit, didn’t read Never L M Go with enough focused attention.
But Plague of Doves… it struck me as a set of short stories shoehorned into a novel, so some of the characters’ actions and attitudes seemed inconsistent across chapters.
To be honest, I was not a fan of Klara and the Sun. To me, it felt like a lesser rehash of Never Let Me Go. I haven’t read Master Butchers yet, but many of Erdrich’s books have stories that span many characters and storylines.
I loved your Top 25!!! So many I haven't read that now are going on the to be read list. My Number one from the last 25 is easily Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin. That book is stuck to me
A lot of people love that book.
Gilead is so great. Great choice.
Thank you! It was a tough decision.
Wow! So well read. Every book that you listed that so have read are books that I really enjoy and would be in my top 25 - Kav and Clay, Road, Homegoing, Ishiguro) makes me keen to check out others from this list 👍
Thank you! I hope you like any of the books you pick up.
What a compelling video! In my previous life, I just read "for funzies"....now, in my 60th year, I feel more like a scholar and I wish there was more time in a day! I want to re-read Kingsolver because I found her soooo very clever! The next time I read her, I will bring my highlighter! Have you read Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr yet? (It's one of my very favorites!) It has stayed with me 100% since I have read it. When you dive in, it's seems to be a series of disjointed stories that weave in and out of oneanother...with a wide variety of experiences and characters spanning the course of many many centuries, and yet, some how the Author weaves them all together quite smartly as it concludes. And the conclusion...my goodness! I didn't see that one coming AT ALL! 6 stars from me!
Interesting list. I've read 10 of the books from your list and from those ten my top three would be 1. Plague of Doves, 2. Kavalier and Clay, 3 The Yield. I have a copy of the Poisonwood Bible which sounds very good but Gilead wasn't one I really enjoyed.
That's fair. I wasn't sure I enjoyed Gilead the first time around.
Thanks for the effort you put into this. I really learned a lot.
Thank you! I hope you enjoy any of the books you pick up.
Very good collection! Definitely added the ones I haven’t read to my list. I would strongly recommend Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon, I truly believe it’s the best novel of the 21st century (or, less definitively, my personal favorite)
Edit (near misses): so glad u mentioned hamnet!! I thought it was phenomenal
Thanks for the recommendation!
You have outdone yourself! I think this is my favorite of all your videos. I have read 16 of your 25 and agree with your choices. My personal favorites from your list are: Poisonwood Bible, Gilead, Empire Falls, Kavalier & Clay, Train Dreams and Wolf Hall. My favorite book in the last 25 years is The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. That man’s writing and observations on life just hit me in all the feels! I would also include at least one of Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe books, probably Independence Day.
One of your local authors, James Lee Burke, has recently published a piece of literary fiction called Flags on the Bayou, and it blew me away. It is currently my favorite book of 2023.
Thanks for the great video!
The only book by Julian Barnes that I have read is The Lemon Table. I'm not sure how I got onto that one and not Sense of an Ending.
A book that stands out for me is The Secret Life of Bees published in 2001. I still think about it. Also, if you like Barbara Kingsolver, try an older book of hers called The Bean Tees. That one has stuck with me as well.
I really liked The Bean Trees and have been wanting to reread it. I never got around to The Secret Life of Bees, so thanks for the recommendation.
I have so much reading to do!
But off the top of my head I really loved: In the Distance - Hernan Diaz (therefore Trust was disappointing)
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
And Zeroville - Steve Erickson
I really hated Bewilderment by Richard Powers - so it’s hard for me to want to read Overstory.
Anyway just some random thoughts.
I haven't read any of your titles yet, but I would like to!
Hello Greg, I enjoy your videos even though we have very different tastes. I Could not handle the Poison wood Bible and I love to foster more than small things. But that’s what makes booktube so unique and fun. And thanks for the video suggestion. Aloha
I'm glad you enjoyed this! And I look forward to your version if you get to it.
When I saw the title I thought you were doing the best book for each of the previous 25 years, which seemed an impossible task. Although I wonder if what you have actually done isn't even more difficult. The list of acclaimed books from the past 25 years that I haven't read yet is a lot longer than yours. I definitely read more older books and just can't keep up with publishing. Oryx and Crake from your "haven't read" list would definitely be on my 25 best list though. From your 25 list, I would probably include Kavalier & Clay. (Ten of the others are already on my TBR. Definitely bumping Gilead and the Poisonwood Bible up towards the top of that tbr list.) I would add Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to my list, for sure. That book has really lingered since I read it four or five years ago.
I got in the habit of staying up to date on newer books while I was working at Borders. I credit that experience with how I usually do a mix of older and new books.
PS I’m going to visit Louise Erdrich store Birchbark books in a few weeks and I might pick up her book you mentioned
I went to her store back in my pre-BookTube days. It's cute. Naturally, they have a lot of signed copies of her books.
Top five of the last 25
Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
Middlesex - Jeffery Eugenides
The Tenth of December - George Saunders
Neapolitan Quartet - Elena Ferrante
A Manual for Cleaning Women - Lucia Berlin
Just seen that your over 10k subs! Amazing stuff. Hope you’re well.
Also, this is a great video. Must have taken you so long to think about and put together. I decided I would only add one book from your list to my tbr (the list is getting too big to add any more) I think I’ll go with Gilead.
Thank you! I feel confident you'll be at 10k soon enough. I would be very curious to hear your thoughts on Gilead when you get to it.
I like your list! You reminded me of a couple I’ve wanted to read.
Off the top of my head I think I’d also include Lost Children Archive, Middlesex, Cloud Atlas, White is for Witching, and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. Maybe also 2666…I mean, I couldn’t finish it 😂 but I could tell it was brilliant.
Middlesex was on my longlist but I feel like I should reread it given how much understanding of that subject has changed over the last twenty years.
@@SupposedlyFun Good point, I had the same thought after I wrote this comment. I read it when it first came out, and was blown away by the writing, Cal’s struggle felt so real, and I would have called it my favorite book for several years, but I do wonder how well it’s aged.
@@Elizabeth-Reads I feel fairly confident it will hold up, but it will be interesting for sure.
Same here with "2666." I read about three-quarters of it, then quit. I found it moving for a while, but then it just fizzled. Or I grew bored? Can't remember exactly what happened. I think if I tackled something similar now, I would quit even sooner. Why? Because at least twice as many males disappear in these kinds of deals, only to be ignored by everyone. Just the cartel doing cartel things is why all the missing people.
New subscriber here...This was absolutely so much fun to watch. 😊
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
It's easy to see how much work this was. I enjoyed it very much. I've read books 2&4 of the Gilead Quartet. I really must read the other 2.
I want to reread Gilead before I try any of the others.
I can’t agree with you on Gilead. But I loved the Poisonwood Bible!
Well one out of two isn't bad! 😉
I need not like poisonwood bible
I would definitely include:
- Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart
- The Years, Annie Ernaux
- The Road, Cormac McCarthy
- Atonement, Ian McEwan
Good choices!
Interesting list - I just of just dabble in lots of genres so mine is all over the place. Also to me 21st century seems a better cut of so didnt want to go before 2000. I just did 20 :-
Caitlin Kiernan - The Drowning Girl - kept to 1 book per author or would have been a short story collection by her too
House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski - The way the sentences are constructed is a bit pedestrian and there are points when this is a slog but it is so unique and whatever efforts you put into it get rewarded with a compelling main plot and many Easter eggs
Junot Diaz - Hard keeping just to one but This is How You Lose Her just wins out - I just love his writing
Richard Ford - It feels a cheat because my favourite of his by far is Rock Springs which was written earlier but both Canada and Multitude of Sins would still make the 21st century list - I think I liked Multitude of Sins Slightly more
The Dead Lake - Hamid Ismailov - One of those that I really liked but might have just given 4 stars to. However this haunting fable like tale has lived long in my head afterwards so that jumps it into the list
Danez Smith - Black Movie - I could have done the full list with poetry but feel that should in some ways be a seperate list - But I could not leave this one out
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan - A very compelling SF tale full of ideas - I DNFed the second in the series but this I eat up
China Mieville The City and the City - another great weirdish SF ish work that manages to blend genres very satisfyingly
Lydia Davis - Short Story collection - I got the complete Lydia Davis and read it all together and then went on to read Can;'t and wont all within a short time of each other - as a result its hard to choose a specific collection but her distinctive writing style certainly deserves a place
Cory Doctorow Little Brother - A YA SF tale that at times feels a bit preachy but just really captures a moment in time now past so very well
A river Called Time Mia Couto - Much to love in this magical realist tale -
Meg Wolitzer - The Wife - really well done, very memorable and whilst it does not 100% live up to its fantastic start it comes close
Brian Selznick - The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Just a wonderful reading experience - a great hybrid of a novel and a graphical novel
Lorrie Moore - A Gate in the Stairs - I really like her short fiction too - This just takes the spot
A Land Without Jasmine - Wajdi Al-Ahdal - Sort blend of crime fiction and other elements that I dont want to share as they can spoil it - really short but also really memorable
Natalie Shapero - Hard Child - Another poetry collection I will squeeze in - but been reading it and re-reading it so much lately it deserves a spot - other great collections that I really wanted to include but didnt let them take over the list include Tony Hoagland, Dean Young, Hannah Lowe, Carol Ann Duffy, Robert Wood Lynn, Natalie Diaz and Kay Ryan
The Night Fairy - Laura Amy Schultz - A really great childrens story - there are probably loads of great ones I have read
Phillip Roth - The Human Stain
Stone in a Landslide Maria Barbal - This was written before the 21st century but not translated into English - Its a wonderful novella from Pierene Press about catalan Spain and a womans life in a rural area. Counting it feels kind of wrong but excluding it feels worse. Interesting translated fiction should not suffer from categorisation issues
I excluded Non fiction and drama and otherwise would have a lot of those in there - so much great works of each. Crime and Thrillers are hard to include because they are often read once and done. I also excluded graphical novels as I feel many of the strongest in that genre are autobiographical and I was excluding non-fiction otherwise I would have included a drifting life, Persepolis, days of destruction, days of revolt etc.
This Is How You Lose Her was on my longlist and didn't make the final 25. You have some very interesting selections! I need to catch up to a lot of them. I've had Lorrie Moore and Lydia Davis on my pile of possibilities for a while--I have one book for each of them that has been patiently waiting for me on my shelves.
Quite a list. I haven't read most of them but your selection of Never Let Me Go gives you full credibility to me. You mention short story collections -- have you read Ted Chiang's collections Stories of Your Life and Others, and Exhalation? There's some great ones, in my humble opinion. Any thoughts on Pynchon's Bleeding Edge , or Inherent Vice, which fit in your timeframe? I know that lots of Pynchon fans consider these "Pynchon Lite", but I enjoyed them. I was taken aback by one of the comments by Susan Townsend praising A Gentleman in Moscow which I stopped reading at page 51 (just pulled it from the bookshelf and I had a marker in the page), but I think I will give it another try if she has devoted quite a bit of time to it (5 readings). Someone else recommended Le Carre's A Perfect Spy, but that came out in the mid 80s. A really great read, that one. Speaking of spy novels I certainly enjoy Mick Herron's Slow Horses series. Anyhow thanks for doing this video. I have never gotten around to Cormac McCarthy but I intend to shortly.
I’ve actually never read a Pynchon book, but at some point will likely try Gravity’s Rainbow. And I have not read Chiang’s stories, but I’ve heard good things. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I got some good recs from this list, so ty there. For me, i got a bit more from Wolf Hall than Poisonwood Bible or Gilead; that would be my top dog of what I've read of this selection.
I also never really got much out of The Road, and would elect Stella Maris as the best of McCarthy latter day output. But I don't think that opinion is reflective of most critics.
Here are a few books I think would fit in well to the conversation:
Disgrace by J M Coetzee: As violent as it is heartbreaking.
Savage Detectives and 2666 by Roberto Bolaño: The 1.a and 1.b on the list of greatest literature of the last quarter century in my eyes; one of my GOAT'd authors.
Anything by Houellebecq: love him or hate him (most of his work falls on the latter side for me), the conversation about modern literature isn't resolved until he is at least acknowledged.
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt: Just a damn good book.
Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon: haven't actually got to it yet, but my fanboyish compells me to have an appearance by Tom.
Disgrace was on my longlist and it was hard to let it go. Other than that, I haven't read any of the books you would add. I had a long debate with myself about whether or not Wolf Hall should be in my top 5. I still waffle back and forth about it.
Great video. And so many women - wonderful. I've read 4, and have noted down 15 others (some of which I was peripherally aware of, just as a kind of underlining). Thanks! The best fiction reading experiences I can recall from recent years were The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch and Burntcoat by Sarah Hall. Oh, and Ducks, Newburyport.
I haven’t read any of your picks and only own Ducks, Newburyport-so thanks for sharing. I didn’t realize how female-driven the list was until I started pulling all the books off of my shelves. It was a pleasant surprise.
@@SupposedlyFun I should warn you Book of Joan is SF - but Yuknavitch is a very serious, literary writer.
@@tjpieraccini SF is fine! It's not my typical read but it's important to get outside the ol' comfort zone every once in a while.
Tricky to come up with titles, as after making a list, a book that you had completely forgotten pops into your head, so here are some off the top of my head :
Toibin's "The Master", "Shuggie Bain", "Girl, Woman, Other", Jaume Cabre's "Confessions", Orhan Pamuk's "A Strangeness in My Mind", "The Luminaries", "This Thing of Darkness", "Atonement", "The Sense of an Ending", "Cloud Atlas" and from two wonderful writers, "The Lacuna" ties with "The Poisonwood Bible" and my favourite Robinson set in Gilead is "Home", but "Lila" remains to be read.
There are several on your list that I want to read at some point! Lacuna is a prime example.
This is more a “my favorite” list than an objective evaluation.
Otherwise Murikami would be on list. Try Killing Commendatore or even short story compilation, First Person Singular. Also agree that Gentleman in Moscow should be included. Also would include Pat Conroy, such as South of Broad. Hallmarks for me require elegant writing style, a progressive narrative, evocative language, but most importantly the novel expands my way of looking at things. Am I sad when the book ends because I do not want to leave these characters. As a high school student, I twice missed my bus stop because I was lost in Les Miserables. Now that’s a novel and may explain why I still tend more towards the classics.
To be fair, if I included books I haven’t read in the name of objectivity, I would be guessing. And I would rather have an accurate list based on experience than guess. Thanks for sharing your picks.
I really enjoyed this video! New subbie 👏🏾
Thank you so much!
this is such a great vid! put so many books on my radar!! i dont think i've read enough to make a comparable video lol!! but hopefully one day :)
I believe you could, but it's up to you.
Cloud Atlas. Definitely put that one at the top your list for reading next.
It's on my list! Thanks for the recommendation.
Very interesting video. I really enjoyed it. Thank you
1998: I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
1999: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
2000: A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin (this was brutal, because I love Kavalier & Clay as well)
2001: Life of Pi by Yann Martel
2002: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
2003: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
2004: Let the Right One In by John Lindqvist
2005: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
2006: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2007: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
2008: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
2009: The Help by Kathryn Stockett
2010: The Passage by Justin Cronin
2011: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
2012: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
2013: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
2014: The Traitor's Blade by Sabastien de Castell
2015: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
2016: Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
2017: Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
2018: The Book of M by Peng Shepherd
2019: Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
2020: Battle Ground by Jim Butcher
2021: The Songbook of Benny Lament by Amy Harmon
2022: Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
It hadn't occurred to me to go year by year. What an interesting approach. Thanks for sharing your list!
I was kinda hoping you might add Demon Copperhead to the list! Loved it.
So here's a spoiler: I'm going to keep updating and working on my list for the next two years so in 2025 I can do "The 25 Best Books of the 21st Century (So Far)." Demon Copperhead is on that list at the moment.
Several of these are on my TBR. I'm looking forward to reading The Poisonwood Bible and The Love Songs of w. e. b. du Bois.
I hope you like them!
So, I haven't read a lot of the "big" books that have been on all the best-of lists year to year, but I went to my 5-star shelf on GR and sorted by pub date and put together a list of my personal top 25 from the past 25 years. There are probably some here that some people would roll their eyes at, but you know, this was about my own enjoyment and impact from the books.
1. Daughter of the Forest (1999)
2. Fingersmith (2002)
3. The Hummingbird’s Daughter (2005)
4. Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)
5. A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)
6. Olive Kitteridge (2008)
7. Wolf Hall (2009)
8. The Surrendered (2009)
9. The Night Circus (2011)
10. Dear Life (2011)
11. My Brilliant Friend (2011)
12. The World We Found (2012)
13. The Snow Child (2012)
14. The Golem and the Jinni (2013)
15. Homegoing (2016)
16. The Underground Railroad (2016)
17. The Weight of Ink (2017)
18. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (2017)
19. Circe (2018)
20. Girl, Woman, Other (2019)
21. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019)
22. Cantoras (2019)
23. The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020)
24. Hamnet (2020)
25. Sistersong (2021)
And then the top 5 from that would be (starting from 5th) Homegoing, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Circe, The Weight of Ink, and my absolute favorite, my top book I've ever read or likely will ever read, was Hamnet.
That's a good list! There are several that I haven't read, so thank you for sharing.
Lots of good ones here but I just wanted to say that The Weight of Ink is so so good and I don't think it got the attention it deserved!
@@LauraNeemann AGREED!!!
@@LauraNeemann That's one that I haven't read!
Great list, some of my faves and a few I will look for now after hearing your intros. I loved The White Tiger, I hope you will make time for it soon. Cloud Atlas too. I wanted to ask if you'd read/had opinions about Cloudsplitter (1998), one of my faves that still haunts me. I had such a strong negative reaction to the series version of Good Lord Bird that I had no desire to read it. I find it hard to imagine the setting and themes of Cloudsplitter from a comedic perspective. If you never read Cloudsplitter I highly recommend it, more grounded in history and a very powerful impact. Poisonwood Bible is also one of my favorites, and Gilead has been on my reread list for a long time, after lots of life experience like you;) Life of Pi, another one to read if you hadn't gotten there yet, I don't think I heard you mention in it in your still to read list
This list makes me realise why I've stopped reading newer fiction
My wife and I loved your list even though we’ve read only a few…a brief history of seven killings needs to be read…I would also pick poison wood as the best…I however enjoyed goldfinch…would also put on on franzens corrections and even though it’s a bit rough Bob Shacochis the woman who lost her soul…
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Small things like these is a wonderful book. Happily it is shortly shortly to be released as a movie starring Cillian Murphy, I am really looking forward to it
I'm looking forward to the movie!